What is Digital Media?

What is Digital Media?

Weird that I would get asked this, since it is on the sign above our
building, and in the name of the degree for the program I direct, but I do.
And, perhaps, with good reason.

First of all, if we are being pedantic, we could suggest that the
proper question should be "what ARE digital media," since media is
plural. But let's pretend that I am NOT a professor and prone to such nit
picking. Ahem.

So, back to the question. What are digital media?

Media are tools
we use to communicate.

I think everyone has a pretty good idea what media are. Humans use
tools, and the tools we use to communicate across distances, across time and to
more people at once than we could with our own voice and body are
"media." Although the definition could include interpersonal and
non-mass media, like the telephone, in common usage we typically have a sense
that "media" are for communicating with more than just one person.
Traditional examples include books, magazines, newspapers, film, radio, and
television.

Digital relates
to the use of computers.

Digital is even easier, in a sense, since it is almost entirely a
technical definition and relates to the use of computers – with their
"binary" language of on/off, 1/zero, bits and bytes. This is the
digital world and includes computers, the software to run them, and the
movement and storage of digital information via networks and storage (hard
drives and cloud services).

So then is
digital media just media with digital tools?

In a sense, yes, but in another sense, no. (See, academics are not
just picky and pedantic, they equivocate).

If you put the radio on the internet, you certainly have digital
media. And if you put a newspaper in a tablet, then you have digital media, as
well. The problem with sticking with that definition is that it misses two
important elements that have been made possible by the combination of
computers, software, and networks: interactivity
and group forming.

Interactivity is made possible because most computer networks are
bi-directional and addressable. In other words, you can specify where your
message is to go, and get a return message right away. This is a feature that
is built into the telephone, but most mass media are one-way, or broadcast,
media. They are engineered to deliver the same message to many people at once,
but they don’t provide for any return messages. Digital media networks are
different – you can still send the same message to many people (e.g., Netflix,
or streaming radio, or just a simple web page), but you can also have
interaction ranging from minor elements (choosing shows and rating them on
Netflix) to major components (posting pictures and comments on other peoples’
photos on Flickr). For more on the value of interactivity in telecommunications networks, see the wikipedia entry on Metcalfe's Law.

The second unique feature of networked digital media is that – because
it is based on software – the people participating in the network can organize
themselves into ad-hoc and arbitrary groups. This is most obviously seen in
Facebook, where you can instantly and easily create a new group around any sort
of topic. These "group forming" networks have enormous
value since they help us coordinate, communicate, and collaborate on projects
large and small – from parties to promotion of brands.

When you
look at it in this way, the most important parts of digital media are not
simply the conversion of regular media to digital formats. That is the easy
part. The hard part – and the part that unleashes tremendous value for society
– is taking advantage of these new capabilities relating to interactivity and
group forming.